Well, I was one of the lucky ones and was inside the Big top for the ceremony. My wife and I had driven the 16 miles to Southampton in appalling weather but the forecast was reasonable for the afternoon. We parked in the Western ("New") Docks and a relay of buses took hundreds to the ship.

Briefly....

We had a few hours to look round the ship before the ceremony but this on-board time included an excellent lunch.

My first impressions are rather mixed. The main atrium is a splendid reception area with music playing as we boarded. This music became "barber shop" singing later in the visit which I am not too keen on.

The hugely wide passageway to the Britannia restaurant had very large bas reliefs (Four Seasons etc) along either side and would be more striking if there was more/stronger lighting. The pillared Britannia itself is on three levels with a glazed deckhead giving a very art-deco appearance.

Other lounges are beautifully finished (as is the rest of the ship, including the steelwork of the hull - not of the dog's ribs effect of the welding) with little alcoves jutting out onto the prom from the main galleries. The "G32" (named after the shipyard number) lounge/bar had "Riveted" doors , shipyard inspired paintings, and more rivet-style decor. The chairs looked as if they had been cut from steel with lightening holes.

The Library has shelving in burred, polished veneer and the plasterwork between shelves and deckhead is moulded with a leaf design. The shelves are well stocked as is the Library bookshop (could see my own "Pride of the North Atlantic" for sale there!) but there did not seem to be many seats for browsers.

The Planetarium was amazing but the passageway outside is rather "hilly" (the passageway goes down and then up at quite an angle) for some reason that I have not yet fathomed. There are photos of celebs on the bulkheads near the theatre but these seem e d to be too oversized for my liking.

Sculptures abound and are generally of art deco style and some are quite stunning.

The Art Gallery seemed rather dingy with a mix of excellent and other paintings/ drawings/sculptures.

Stephen's paintings are in many of the stair wells and initially I thought that their sizes (in some cases) were larger than usual and when I saw a familiar one much larger than I remembered from QE2 it dawned that they were photographic copies on canvas textured backing. I think that Stephen will have something to add to this on his return from his Christmas hols!

Carpeting also was a mix, the worst being in accommodation areas where a "Leopard spot" weave is hideously employed.

It was quite a day for celeb spotting but it was nice to bump into John Maxton Graham and Robert Lloyd (his painting of QM2 passing under the Verrazanno Bridge was to be presented to the builders) amongst the others that I know. Jimmy Savill came and sat with us for tea as we had met on the CARONIA delivery voyage and on QE2 during my in-port look arounds.

We disembarked about 3 for the naming ceremony and were quickly guided to our seats.

The large tent had an auditorium at a good angle from the stage and the proceedings wee about 10 minutes late in starting. The four "walls" of the tent were lined with material which had a bit of movement as it was still very windy outside.

We were entertained by the Band of the Royal Marines for the first 1/2 hr & meanwhile the Royal Liverpool Phil. Orchestra took their place to the right of the large stage and a large choir to the left. Michael Burke (BBC TV news presenter) was MC and he introduced a superb black singer and, later, Lesley Garrett ,who sang "Amazing Grace" as only she can.

In between Pam Conova made an excellent speech.

Hanging down from the beams above the stage was a large screen and this showed a brief history of the Cunard and other items such as the Queens at war and celebs who have travelled.

Meanwhile the one large screen split into two, each half being moved - almost in mid-air- to either side and above the stage. Shortly after the "wall" behind the stage drew apart like a massive curtain to reveal the floodlit complete bow of QM2 with her name bathed in a brighter light. An absolutely breathtaking image! The whole "wall" was now a huge window of very transparent polythene.

The Bishop of Winchester and the Port Chaplain led prayers (including a tribute in French to the "St Nazaire dead"), blessed the ship and then Ron Warwick led the Queen to the podium in the middle of the stage, accompanied by Pam Conova and Mickey Arison who had very nobly kept a low profile during the whole proceedings, letting PC rightly take the limelight for "her" company. I was surprised , however, that there was not a rep from the shipyard in the group.

The Queen named the ship; the bottle dutifully broke on first impact and a splendid firework display lit up the sky for quite a long time.

It was then that Lesley Garrett did her "stuff" with a lone piper joining in from onboard the ship. Wind and kilt combined presented a very chilly sight!

After the Queen's departure it took quite some time for the auditorium to clear but even then the noise of spanners on scaffolding could be heard as a start was made to dissemble the tent.

As we drove home over the Itchen Bridge I looked over towards the ship and had to do a second "take". The funnel was floodlit but because the black part did not show up in the dark and the red casing did it looked remarkably like the funnel of the QUEEN MARY, or even of the BERENGARIA!